Resource Center

IHHP’s resource center offers you Emotional Intelligence tools and tips to help you perform your best when you are under pressure. These pressure tools have been developed from our research on Olympic athletes, CEOs, US Navy Seals and over 100,000 research participants. Over the past 15 years we have learned what it takes to better utilize pressure so it becomes a competitive edge. If you are looking to become pressure ready please review our material in our resource center.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ or EI) is a term created by two researchers – Peter Salavoy and John Mayer – and popularized by Dan Goleman in his 1996 book of the same name.

We define EI as the ability to:

Recognize, understand and manage our own emotions

Recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others

In practical terms, this means being aware that emotions can drive our behavior and impact people (positively and negatively), and learning how to manage those emotions – both our own and others – especially when we are under pressure.

Really want to understand what Emotional Intelligence is about? Watch this first video.

Examples of high pressure situations that require us to manage our emotions skillfully include:

giving and receiving feedback

meeting tight deadlines

dealing with challenging relationships

not having enough resources

dealing with change

dealing with setbacks and failure

Meaning of Emotional Intelligence

Whether you are a formal manager or want to increase your individual performance (or both), the IHHP emotional intelligence training program will teach you the foundational principles and brain science of Emotional Intelligence (EI). You will become a student of human behavior: understanding what your brain does under pressure and how that affects your decision making and the impact you have on others. The idea is that the more you understand about how you react under certain conditions, the better you are able to anticipate your behavior and counter it with a more constructive response.

The Research:

In his book Working With Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman sites the Harvard Business School research that determined that EQ counts for twice as much as IQ and technical skills combined in determining who will be successful.

Emotional intelligence – why it can matter more than IQ: for additional research on the business case for EI, please refer to our white paper – The ROI for Emotional Intelligence

Need more science? Watch this video where Bill introduces the amygdala high-jack.

The Brain Science – An Amygdala Hijack

When they first hear the term EQ, many people think it’s something soft and squishy. We thought the same thing until we learned about the brain science of emotions. In particular, we all have the cognitive part of our brain where we do our best thinking, but we also have the emotional part of our brain – more specifically the amygdala – which responds when we feel fear or are threatened in any way (physically and socially).

In our programs, we help people understand the chemical responses we all experience under pressure, and how that can limit our ability to think cognitively, and move us toward our default behaviors during what is called an “amygdala hijack”, where this more primitive part of our brain can literally hijack our thinking mind.

The IHHP emotional intelligence training program will help you improve your own personal leadership by teaching you to manage your emotions in your most difficult moments. This learning will enable you to perform at your best, and connect with others in a more meaningful way. You will also gain critical skills that will enable you to influence and coach others, regardless of your position in your organization. Not only will this make you a more effective leader, it also offers you the ability to increase your position within the company and ultimately influence its success or failure.

Learn a strategy to manage your emotions under pressure by watching this video.

What do IHHP and a New York Times bestselling book have in common? Watch this video to find out.

After watching this last video, you now have a better understanding of how IHHP and the New York Times bestselling book on pressure support each other. What is important to know is that Emotional Intelligence is the foundation of all of IHHP’s programs. But what is the nest step?

Remember, leadership is not easy, especially under pressure. Pressure changes how the brain functions; it diminishes our ability to think, make decisions and connect with others in a meaningful way. With pressure increasing in all aspects of our lives, the ability to manage pressure is one of the key differentiators of high performing managers and leaders.

What does IHHP do that’s unique in training emotional intelligence?

We’ve been delivering keynotes, training, assessment and coaching programs on the topic of emotional intelligence in the workplace for over 15 years. We think we are especially good at:

Creating learning programs (virtual or classroom) that take the research and brain science of EI and translate it into practical learning and techniques people can apply when under pressure

Creating programs with very practical and interactive exercises that give people the opportunity to learn and practice how they can apply the new techniques they’ve learned

Understanding the unique needs of our clients and applying the learning to those needs. Examples of ways we apply our EI programs include: leading through change, increasing engagement, creating accountability, building teams, driving sales performance, etc.

The business world continues to experience constant change: disruptive technologies, reorganizations, cost cuttings and mergers and acquisitions all create enormous pressure. It isn’t surprising that over 70% of change efforts fail to meet their stated goals.

Part of the problem is that, according to IHHP’s study of 12,000 people described in the New York Times bestselling book, Performing Under Pressure, co-written by IHHP’s Dr. JP. Pawliw-Fry, most people take a haphazard approach to pressure.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Managing the pressure of change is a learnable set of skills that was a key take-away from this webinar.

Special thanks goes to your fantastic presenters, Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry, Bill Benjamin and special guest, Nancy Medoff, Director, Group Sales with Marriott International. The insight and strategies provided during our 1 hour webinar on August 19th, was very well received: 96% of attendees found the webinar valuable and applicable to their work.

Thank you to those who attended. Your kind words are appreciated!
“Thank you, very helpful”, “Thank you so much, this was great!”

During the webinar, a PowerPoint slideshow was used to assist in illustrating findings, strategies and insights on how to manage pressure.

We encourage you to print the slide deck out and use it internally for your next meeting. Get your team engaged to learn how to manage pressure.

Organizations that are Gender Diverse Outperform the Competition.

Women have a brain based difference that predisposes them to weigh more variables, consider more options, see more context and visualize a wider array of solutions and outcomes to a problem when they or their organization are under pressure.

The Women Under Pressure initiative will answer

What is unique about a women’s brain and why is that important to organizations?

What is the second layer of pressure that women face that is different from men?

What did we learn from our research study of 6,000 women?

What strategies can women learn to perform better under pressure?

Teams benefit when men and women collaborate.

The results from a year long study of women in the workplace and the second layer of pressure they face.

Want to know more about our champions and read some insightful articles?

Your daughter is having pains in her stomach and yet the doctor can’t seem to find anything physically wrong with her. Your son is worried about the ‘big game’ but he doesn’t want to talk about it and you don’t know what to do. Your daughter seems constantly mad at you and you are not sure why.

If you have experienced stories like this, you are not alone.

When we parent or are in a role of influencing teenagers, life can be very challenging. In fact, research has found that we are at our unhappiest in our lifespan when we are parenting teens. It is difficult being a parent of a teen today. It is also, of course, very difficult being a teen.

In this intimate, moving program, Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry and his teenage daughter Brigitte, discuss what parents who are under pressure can do to help teens who are under pressure manage life and pressure more effectively. They speak from each of their perspectives of being a parent under pressure and a teen under pressure. You will find tools and insights that will help you manage yourself a little more skillfully in those difficult moments and some coaching tools to help you help your teen manage pressure more effectively as they face their challenges.

Please click here for the introduction to the “How to coach your teens when you and they are under pressure” podcast. Click on the large podcast box below to purchase the entire podcast.

Performing Under Pressure: June 21, 2016

People are feeling overwhelmed by pressure – to achieve results, to meet deadlines, to manage difficult relationships, to do more with less, to facilitate and adapt to change. When pressure is not managed, it impacts both our emotional and cognitive brain, diminishing our ability to communicate, manage relationships, make effective decisions, manage change and influence and lead others.

Please feel free to print out and get even more engaged with learning how to manage the pressure of doing more with less.

In The Webinar, You Learned:

1. Key findings from IHHP’s research study and their work in the field of Emotional Intelligence, as well as training with athletes, the military and high-performing leaders around the world
2. Best practices from Kerri at Allstate Canada on how they are implementing highly impactful leadership development programs
3. Insight on how pressure affects your brain and impairs your best abilities by impacting three key areas:
• Your Emotional brain under pressure
• Your Cognitive brain under pressure
• Your Conversations under pressure
4. Pressure Solutions that you can implement right away to be more skillful in your pressure moments

Insight about how your brain responds when you are feeling overwhelmed

How to differentiate between stress and pressure

How not to succumb to cognitive distortions when you feeling overwhelmed

This session combined the latest research and neuroscience on pressure and performance, combined with practical strategies you can apply right away in order to be your best when it matters most.

The Pressure of Doing More with Less: May 26, 2016

Together with our partners at WINiT and BigSpeak, we bring you this hour long webinar to learn about strategies to do more with less.

This ongoing, relentless pressure can be damaging, undermining people’s performance, impacting their relationships, and leading to fatigue, burnout, and reduced engagement.

The top 10% performers in an IHHP study we conducted for our New York Times Best selling book, Performing Under Pressure, were not impervious to the stress and pressure of having to do more with less. They experience all the same distortions and anxiety, but had insights and strategies to successfully deal with them. You can too!

Please feel free to (print out the slide deck-coming soon) and get even more engaged with learning how to manage the pressure of doing more with less.

In The Webinar, You Learned:

Insight about how your brain responds when you are feeling overwhelmed

How to differentiate between stress and pressure

How not to succumb to cognitive distortions when you feeling overwhelmed

You will have left the Webinar having gained insights about how your brain responds when you are faced with having to do more with less, and strategies you can apply to help you overcome pressure’s derailing effects.

Managing the Pressure of Doing More with Less: December 4, 2015

Organizations everywhere are asking their teams to “do more with less.” When budget cuts reduce work forces, remaining employees are expected to manage additional responsibilities.

This ongoing, relentless pressure can be damaging, undermining people’s performance, impacting their relationships, and leading to fatigue, burnout, and reduced engagement.

The top 10% performers in an IHHP study we conducted for our New York Times Best selling book, Performing Under Pressure, were not impervious to the stress and pressure of having to do more with less. They experience all the same distortions and anxiety, but had insights and strategies to successfully deal with them. You can too!

Please feel free to print out the slide deckand get even more engaged with learning how to manage the pressure of doing more with less.

In The Webinar, You Learned:

How the top 10% performers in our research study overcame the pressure of needing to do more with less

Insight about how your brain responds when you are feeling overwhelmed

How to differentiate between stress and pressure

How not to succumb to cognitive distortions when you feeling overwhelmed

Three Pressure Solutions that will help you do more with less

You will have left the Webinar having gained insights about how your brain responds when you are faced with having to do more with less, and strategies you can apply to help you overcome pressure’s derailing effects.

Managing the Pressure of Change: August 19, 2015

The business world continues to experience constant change: disruptive technologies, reorganizations, cost cuttings and mergers and acquisitions all create enormous pressure.

Welcome to our news archives. Feel free to check out any of our links below. It may look like we missed a month here and there…we did not. We just didn’t have anything new to share for that month!
If you currently do not receive our newsletter, please sign up any time by filling in ‘the sign up for news and research box at the bottom of every page of our website. You can opt out anytime and we promise…we will only email you a couple times a months.

ABOUT IHHP

IHHP is a research-based training company and has been a leader in Emotional Intelligence for over twenty years.

We build integrated programs with training, assessments and coaching based on neuroscience for real change. We translate the science behind managing emotions and teach people the skills to summon their best selves and do their best work during moments of truth.